Netscape offers 'hybrid' browser

[KillerByte]

Veteran net firm Netscape has released a new version of its browser.


Its focus is on security, with features to protect consumers from malicious software and online scams.


Netscape 8.0 is described as a "hybrid" browser, allowing users to click between both Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) and rival open source web browser Firefox.



You can read the full article here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4562343.stm).

This sounds like an interesting approach. I wonder how it will pan out for the Netscape browser.

<font color="#FF0000">NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT TURN THIS THREAD INTO A BROWSER WAR</font>

[DudeMiester]

Well I can already click between Firefox and IE, thanks to extensions.

[Iggy]

The only thing I don't like is the word "rival" in that message. I'd rather see browsers coöperating rather then fighting each other. I choose Firefox, but I wish Netscape-users all the best. (No, not IE. Sorry, but that browser caused a lot of damage)

[Wamplet]

Cool. I may download it and try it here at work.

[Geir]

is it about putting the two browsers together into one browser or is at a program that can switch between browsers simultaiosly?

does microsoft and mozilla give the go on this?

[KillerByte]

Dr. Emmett Brown said:
is it about putting the two browsers together into one browser or is at a program that can switch between browsers simultaiosly?



It is simply a case that the browser can render pages using either the Gecko (Mozilla) or the Internet Explorer layout engines. The user can switch between the engines used if they feel that the browser is not rendering the page correctly for them.

[Kevin Wolff]

DudeMiester said:
Well I can already click between Firefox and IE, thanks to extensions.


I think what this means is that you have one window, and you can have the browser render the page using either engine.

[KillerByte]

Kevin Wolff said:

DudeMiester said:
Well I can already click between Firefox and IE, thanks to extensions.


I think what this means is that you have one window, and you can have the browser render the page using either engine.



Correct.

[Wamplet]

KillerByte said:

Dr. Emmett Brown said:
is it about putting the two browsers together into one browser or is at a program that can switch between browsers simultaiosly?



It is simply a case that the browser can render pages using either the Gecko (Mozilla) or the Internet Explorer layout engines. The user can switch between the engines used if they feel that the browser is not rendering the page correctly for them.


Yes.

It looks like Netscape became privy to source code for IE or Windows http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif so that it can integrate or include parts of IE compatible weeble wabble into their version. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[IwantMORE]

Not available for the Mac, I have downloaded it for the PC and will give it a try, but I hope they have not imported IE's security loopholes in the process.

I can't see it being a big rival to Firefox or IE but you never can tell.

[Scream]

I found this mildly amusing. Someone got a pink slip today...

"Netscape patches 1-day-old browser"

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5715360.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed

[IwantMORE]

Maybe I'll wait a week or two before instaling it then http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[clayasaurus]

Yay! Now I can have all the bugs/flaws of IE with all the bugs/flaws of firefox!

[Steve]

Does it come with that aol stuff? Damn it hated that when I used netscape http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Night Hacker]

I honestly don't miss anything about IE. I want to stay as far away from IE as possible.

My website wasn't rendering properly on IE (IE's fault, not mine), I found out why and redone my website so it would view properly. But for a long time I simply put a notice on my website that it was built with Mozilla based browsers in mind.

Anyhow, I won't bother with nutscrape, not when Firefox works perfectly now.

[fmuder]

Microsoft: New Netscape Breaks IE (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121023,00.asp)

...and another patch is coming.

[IwantMORE]

Night Hacker said:
My website wasn't rendering properly on IE (IE's fault, not mine), I found out why and redone my website so it would view properly. But for a long time I simply put a notice on my website that it was built with Mozilla based browsers in mind.




If a website dose not work on a browser, especialy one which has 80% of the market, you can only blame the designer not IE.

Unfortunately there are too many browsers and OS's that all treat html differently the best way to avoid problems is to keep websites simple.

People don't want to know this website works best in Mozilla, or works best at X by Y resolution. If you want people to see your site it's your job to make sure it works in as may places as possible.

[IwantMORE]

"Netscape 8 disables the XML (Extensible Markup Language) rendering capabilities in Internet Explorer, meaning that some Web pages will not be visible in IE after Netscape 8 is installed."

That's funny, I'm gonna tell everone to download Netscape to make IE screw up http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[TerminX]

IwantMORE said:
"Netscape 8 disables the XML (Extensible Markup Language) rendering capabilities in Internet Explorer, meaning that some Web pages will not be visible in IE after Netscape 8 is installed."

That's funny, I'm gonna tell everone to download Netscape to make IE screw up http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif


Heheh. The good side to XML being broken is that, knowing Microsoft, it probably makes the browser more secure. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Night Hacker]

IwantMORE said:
If a website dose not work on a browser, especialy one which has 80% of the market, you can only blame the designer not IE.




No, it is a bug in IE that has never been fixed! When I set my webpage to 100% width in a table for one of my frames, IE still puts up a horizontal scroll bar on the bottom of the frame when it shouldn't, NOTHING goes off the right of the page, it is wrapped as it should be. The table is fixed so it will never be wider than the viewers screen width, yet a scroll bar is still placed on screen. I done some searching and quickly found a website which described this BUG in IE, what caused it and gave me a work around that would cause IE to not put a scroll bar up.

Mozilla or Firefox or any other browser for that matter had zero problems, none of them put up scroll bars, the frame looked fine, only IE. It had nothing to do with my design and everything to do with Internet Explorer's [u]BUG</u>.

Using your logic, I guess Windows isn't buggy either, after all, the majority of people on home computers use it. It must be the software designers fault. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif


Edit: The bug had to do with the way IE renders frames, not tables.

The fix was to use the following in your stylesheet...

html {
overflow-y: scroll;
}

[NetNessie]

IwantMORE said:
If a website dose not work on a browser, especialy one which has 80% of the market, you can only blame the designer not IE.




Web standards define the proper way a website is meant to be marked up, its not a designers fault if the correct markup is ruined by IE. It is however the designers fault for not placing in work-arounds to fix IE's issues.

[IwantMORE]

Yer and there are rules on the roads to but in another driver breaks the rules you don't drive your car at full speed into them, you avoid them.

The same with web design it dosn't matter about web standards an bug, you make a page test it as much as possible and make sure it works, after all you are making a website for the end users not to prove you can comply with standards or to prove you can make pages. You make website for OTHER people to look at.

Unless of corse there is no content worth looking at on the site.

[Night Hacker]

Whatever... http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

[KillerByte]

Guys, to reiterate...


<font color="#FF0000">NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT TURN THIS THREAD INTO A BROWSER WAR</font>



Netscape 8 is trying to solve the issues you are highlighting by allowing people to switch rendering engines to view sites which aren't displayed correctly. I didn't say you had to use the browser. I'm simply stating its existence.

As a web developer, I understand the differences between Internet Explorer and Mozilla. A good web developer produces code which works the same in both browsers, even if workarounds are required for pages to be rendered the same. However, there are a number of web developers who only focus on one web browser, which can cause problems for users of other browsers. I think this is the gap which Netscape is trying to bridge.